When the first Guy raised his gun and aimed it at them, Tang Erda lifted his hand to stop the others and shouted, "Duck and run!"
"It's not necessary," Bai Liu said, looking toward the end of the fog. "The space began connecting the moment we stepped in. Now it's completely sealed. We can't escape."
Tang Erda followed Bai Liu's gaze—and froze.
At the far end of the mist stood a faint street sign with a fresh bullet hole in it—the one he had just shot. Beside it were three figures, two tall and one small.
They were themselves.
"It seems we have to solve the puzzle before we can get out," Bai Liu said, turning to the zombie brides closing in. "Tang Erda, hold them off for a while."
Tang Erda moved instantly. He knocked aside the guns of two zombie brides, grabbed the third one's rifle, spun it around, shoved the barrel into its mouth, and fired twice. Blood splattered across his face.
"There's a puzzle here?" he asked hoarsely without turning around.
Bai Liu pointed to the street sign beside him. "That's the puzzle."
Tang Erda snapped one of the Guy's necks and wiped the blood from his face. "What kind of puzzle could this be?"
Bai Liu's gaze settled on the signpost. Eight wooden arrows pointed in different directions: Recruit Station, Tavern, Training Camp, Town Exit, Registration Office, Train Station, Battlefield, and Cemetery.
Liu Jiayi scanned them quickly. "The hint is the locations. But no matter which direction we choose, we loop back here. There must be a specific route."
"There are too many combinations with eight signs," she added, frowning at Bai Liu. "Do you have any clues?"
Bai Liu glanced at the Guy struggling with Tang Erda. "Haven't the clues already been given?"
Liu Jiayi abruptly turned toward the zombie brides. "These Guys are corpses. They came from the cemetery!"
"Yes." Bai Liu's eyes returned to the sign. "These zombie Guys came from the cemetery and passed through this barrier. If they can cross it even after death, then the route must be deeply ingrained in them—so familiar that they can follow it subconsciously."
Liu Jiayi, unfamiliar with the NPC Guy, shook her head. "I don't know his habits. I'll help Tang Erda. Figure it out quickly."
She rushed over with two antidote bottles and kicked away a rifle aimed at Tang Erda's back.
A gunshot rang out. Bai Liu sidestepped smoothly, but his eyes never left the sign.
If the seven days of war were a loop, then these resurrected Guys would remember the path they had taken while alive. Guy defected on the second day, so it must be the route he traveled on the first day.
And on that day, Guy had been with Bai Liu the entire time.
They first met Guy at—
Bai Liu lifted his eyes to the first sign. "First, the battlefield."
Tang Erda had already confiscated the monsters' guns. He hoisted Liu Jiayi onto his shoulders and dashed two steps toward the battlefield. "Then what?! There are more of them coming!"
"Second, the train station," Bai Liu continued evenly. "Third, the registration office. Fourth, the recruit station. Fifth, the tavern. Sixth, the training camp."
"What about the seventh and eighth?!" Tang Erda shouted urgently.
Bai Liu's gaze flicked between Town Exit and Cemetery. He had never visited either place with Guy. The order was unclear.
But corpses ultimately return to the cemetery.
He paused for only a second. "Seventh, the town exit. Eighth, the cemetery."
Tang Erda stepped toward the cemetery—then stopped when nothing changed. The mist remained motionless.
He turned back in confusion. "Why isn't anything happening? Did I go the wrong way?"
He didn't doubt Bai Liu's judgment.
Liu Jiayi slipped from Tang Erda's shoulders, dizzy from being carried so fast. "You're going in the wrong direction," she said breathlessly. "These Guys came from the cemetery. We need to walk the route in reverse."
Tang Erda: "…"
He looked at Bai Liu in bewilderment. "But you were thinking—"
Bai Liu smiled innocently. "I assumed you'd realize we should walk backward. It's easy to guess."
Tang Erda: "…"
"I told you he was just playing," Liu Jiayi muttered. "Come on, you big fool."
As expected, retracing the route backward worked. Bai Liu pushed through the fog and saw another figure ahead.
Tang Erda instinctively drew his revolver, but before he could act, a black whip snapped out of the mist with lightning speed. It struck the back of his hand before he could even react.
The familiar weapon. The sharp sting.
Tang Erda withdrew his gun cautiously. "Spades?"
Spades stepped out of the fog, whip in his left hand. He glanced at Tang Erda coldly. "Didn't I tell you not to fire recklessly?"
Tang Erda's expression flattened. "..."
Why could Spades make such outrageous demands—like forbidding others from using their own skill weapons—with absolute confidence?
Bai Liu glanced lightly at Spades. "Don't hit my team members."
Spades responded with an "Oh," then immediately turned to Tang Erda. "Sorry."
Liu Jiayi muttered disapprovingly, "You think that's enough?"
Spades looked at her calmly, raised his whip, and struck the back of his own hand without hesitation. Then he asked seriously, "Is that acceptable?"
Liu Jiayi: "…"
Tang Erda: "…"
Why was this man arguing so earnestly with an eight-year-old girl?
Seeing Spades' completely serious expression, Bai Liu intervened. "Enough. What did you find?"
Spades turned to him. "I found a woman in the cemetery."
"A woman?" Bai Liu's tone sharpened slightly. "Who?"
Spades met his eyes. "Alex's former fiancée."
Spades led them through the vast fog and into a town.
A brand-new town. Or rather, not new, but intact.
The once-bustling border town was now layered in old dust. Wooden signs were rotting, their lettering faded beyond recognition. The stacked tents of the training camp were buried beneath abandoned industrial buildings. The registration shelves were rusted and discarded.
The tavern was gone. In its place stood a long-closed grocery store. A notice on the door stated it had shut down thirty years ago.
The ground was littered with scraps of paper, torn billboard plastic, and broken vinyl records.
Bai Liu turned around.
The lush rainforest battlefield had vanished, replaced by a massive factory. Beside it stood a dilapidated billboard:
[Producer of Tropical Forest Raw Materials — Global Log Production Base]
Next to the slogan was a smiling lumberjack painted in oil.
The factory gates were locked. A sign indicated it had been closed for years, around the same time as the grocery store.
Bai Liu withdrew his gaze and continued walking.
They passed the town exit and reached a long-abandoned cemetery. Spades climbed over the rusted gate with practiced ease and opened it from the inside.
Bai Liu stepped in.
The cemetery was desolate. Marble tombstones were overgrown with weeds. Crosses and gravemarkers leaned at crooked angles, half-buried in wild grass.
But that wasn't the strangest part.
Bai Liu carefully read the names on the crosses and tombstones.
The dates of death. The black-and-white photographs. The names.
They were all identical. Every grave belonged to Guy Davis.
Almost every grave had been dug open. Broken coffins lay shattered. Soil was piled up beside the tombstones, as if something had clawed its way out.
Walking to the far corner, Bai Liu saw an old woman holding a bouquet of flowers. With trembling movements, she bent down and placed the flowers—and a wedding dress—on one of the tombs.
"Hello," Bai Liu said softly. "Who are you?"
She turned around. Her cloudy eyes brimmed with tears. "I used to be the fiancée of that boy, Alex."
"But that was fifty or sixty years ago." She waved her hand and brushed dust from the tombstone, then sat down slowly with a sigh. "Now I'm just an old woman cleaning his grave."
Bai Liu crouched to meet her gaze. "What's your name?"
"Elena. Just call me Elena." She studied him. "Young man, who are you?"
Bai Liu answered calmly, "You may not believe me, but I'm Alex's comrade-in-arms."
"Comrade?" The old woman let out a dry laugh. "Young man, I think you're more senile than I am. That war ended over fifty years ago."
She shook her head gently.
"If you're going to dream of being a war hero, at least choose a more recent war."